A Career In Sylvia Plath's Life

Sylvia Plath lived a short life of only 30 years, but in those 30 years she achieved more than some people do in double that time. She drew material from the troubles she faced throughout her life and showed true promise. Sylvia Plath lived a life of immense challenges, highlighted by a brief but bright literary career that ended much too soon. Sylvia Plath was born on 27 October 1932 to parents Aurelia and Otto Plath, who were both immigrants and intellectuals (Kirk 36). Throughout her early development, Aurelia kept detailed records of all of Plath’s milestones, recording the poet’s first attempts at language between six and eight weeks of age (Kirk 37). When Plath’s brother Warren was born, Aurelia began to teach her phonics to ease her jealousy. Plath developed quickly, reading simple books by 4 and writing poetry at 5 (Kirk 41). At the age of 4 she began half-day first grade, before most children did, and excelled. One of the events of Plath’s life that greatly affected her was the death of her father. Otto Plath’s health had begun to fail in the summer of 1935, and by …show more content…
One of the major influences was her father, inspiring the poems “Daddy,” “The Beekeepers Daughter,” “The Bee Meeting,” “The Arrival of the Bee Box,” “Stings,” and “The Swarm” (Kirk 38). As can be seen when The Bell Jar is compared with her biography, Plath wrote what she had experienced, following Prouty’s advice (The Bell Jar). Also, in her journals she writes about the moon and its power on numerous occasions, and it appears in a number of her poems (Unabridged Journals).The historical context of her work is mostly in the feminist movement. She wrote extensively in her journals about the role of women and the double standard between men and women (Unabridged Journals). Some Nazi symbolism can be seen in a few of her poems, as in “Lady Lazarus” and “Daddy” (Ariel 14;